1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an anti-chipping film adapted to be attachable to a given metal sheet to cover a mounting hole which is formed in the metal sheet to mount a given resin member, and an electric apparatus using the film.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most of electric apparatuses including household electric apparatuses, such as a television and a radio, office machines, such as a computer and an image forming apparatus, and optical apparatuses, such as a camera and a scanner built into an image forming apparatus, are assembled by mounting various components onto a frame or a structural member comprising a metal sheet formed into a given 3-dimensional shape and a given resin member attached thereto to serve as a rim member.
Typically, the metal sheet and the resin member are provided, respectively, with a plurality of mounting holes perforated at appropriate positions thereof, and a plurality of appropriately-shaped engagement protrusions formed at positions thereof corresponding to those of the mounting holes, and each of the engagement protrusions is inserted into a corresponding one of the mounting holes while being elastically deformed, so as to allow the resin member to be mounted onto the metal sheet. Upon completion of the operation for mounting the resin member onto the metal sheet, the elastically-deformed engagement protrusion returns to its original shape, so that the connection therebetween will be maintained.
In the above connecting structure between the metal sheet and the resin member, during the operation for inserting the engagement protrusion of the resin member into the mounting hole of the metal sheet, a surface of the engagement protrusion scrapes against an edge of the mounting hole to often result in generation and scattering of microscopic chips peeled from the engagement protrusion. Such chips getting into an inner space of the frame are likely to cause a problem about occurrence of malfunction in internal precision devices.